Iraq Looting Reporters!

[JPhillips]

This is disgusting. Check out the line at the bottom. I bet Geraldo is really pissed that he didn't make it into Baghdad. He could have gotten one of them Hammurabi tablet thingies.



US Customs officials confiscated a large painting that a Boston Herald reporter, Jules Crittenden, brought back as a souvenir from the war in Iraq, but the artwork is not valuable enough to merit prosecution, a law enforcement official said yesterday.

Crittenden, who was embedded with the US Army's Third Infantry Division to cover the war, arrived from Kuwait on Saturday at Logan International Airport. He declared several souvenirs to Customs officials, and was searched, according to a statement released by the newspaper.

Of interest to Customs agents was a 5-foot painting that was rolled up in a tube, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Ornamental kitchen items were also confiscated. Crittenden told the agents he got the painting from a building on the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces.

''He didn't think it was a big deal,'' the official said of Crittenden. ''He said all the embedded reporters were doing it.''

[Saddam Hussein]

Gifts for my American friends, may Allah bring peace unto them. Would you like some tea my friend? How about a Cuban cigar? Or a painting of myself, peace be unto me, so you may remember your time in Baghdad.

[ACStrider]

Originally posted by JPhillips
He could have gotten one of them Hammurabi tablet thingies.

Is that the technical name for it?

[SackAttack]

Well, sure. Steal a few items of artistic value, create a story that looting is taking place and it's all the Bush administration's fault, and you get a souvenir AND political hay out of the deal.